Blood Status || Marauders Era

Chapter 59|| The Map

It had been exactly a month since we were silent, and we had celebrated by small sips of Firewhiskey and then a shouting match, the four of us getting used to our voices again. They were all still a little bit crackly, and the first time James used it, we teased him about it, but then the rest of our voices did the same, so it didn't have the same effect.

I was sat eating dinner with Lily and Marlene a few days afterwards, talking about anything I could think of, making good use of my voice and not taking anything like this for granted again. "You haven't spoken for a month, how come you're so talkative now?" Lily asked me, as she put her head in her hands, it was the first chance she had gotten to talk. 

I sighed, grinning across at her and shoving a roast potato into her mouth, "It was all for a good cause Lily, and that is exactly why I've missed talking." A short while later, Peter tapped me on the shoulder, obviously coming as a messenger from someone else, and whispered, "Athena, we have something to tell you. Can you come over here for a minute?" 

I said my goodbyes to the girls who were more than happy to hand me over to someone else, and I sat next to Peter, taking a bite of his steak and waiting for someone to explain why Peter had called me over. It seemed that the boy himself was going to answer my question.

"Athena, do you have complete faith in us to actually create a map of Hogwarts that shows where everything is and what and where every person inside the castle grounds are? Not just to come up with the idea." I thought about it and, it was highly likely they would have the skills but, it sounded very complicated and confusing, even for me, "No," I answered. 

Sirius laughed, "Well what we're going to say next is going to shock you. Wait for it." I waited, and wondered what an earth the boys were going to tell me, then I though upon what Peter had just described to me and gasped, they were a lot more smarter than I gave them credit for.

James grinned at my surprised expression, obviously proud of himself for both doing it and keeping it a secret from me, and said, "Remus has already started it over the summer, and so far we've done the first floor and the forbidden forest. Surprise!" Remus frowned at the brown haired boy, saying, "It wasn't my .. wait, it was my idea. Surprise."

I was surprised to say the least, it had never crossed my mind that they would actually execute the plan, sure, it was talked about in passing conversation, but I'd never expected that Remus would be the one to start 'The Map'. "Can you show me it?" Remus nodded and with that, we all finished our food and walked out of the Great Hall towards the Gryffindor common room, in which Remus told us all to wait by the fire whilst he acquired it.

Beside the fireplace in one of the cushioned armchairs was one of my favourite places in Hogwarts. I don't think anyone really understood the beauty and the comfort that the spot gave more than me. Well, I had thought that with the Astronomy Tower, until Sirius had joined me and we had sat there together in silence. Strangely enough, neither of us had actually brought up that situation to anyone else, or at least I assumed.

Remus came back down the stairs that led from the boys dormitories with a small piece of parchment in his hand. I took a double take, surely a blank piece of parchment couldn't hold a magical map. James seemed to notice my expression because a smile plastered itself on his face, and he said, "Never underestimate us." 

Remus sat in the chair next to me and he passed me the piece of parchment. I flipped it between my fingers and saw nothing, no writing, no pictures, not even a small ink blot or a dot from a quill. I looked at the four boys with an expectant look and Peter smirked, "We've charmed it, well Moony did. It's like using what Muggles say, magic words."

I inspected the paper and when I found no clue to the words and no hint, I looked up at the boys again, "Well, what are they?"

Sirius chuckled, answering, "Just point your wand at it and try something, try anything." I pointed my wand at the parchment and said, "Hello?", which made the boys laugh. Then, suddenly, words started to appear on the parchment at an impressive speed, it was different handwriting for each line and it was very amusing to see. The sentences were all very direct:

𝑀𝑜𝑜𝓃𝓎 𝓈𝒶𝓎𝓈, 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓎 𝒜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃𝒶 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓈𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹.
𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙧 1 𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙨, 𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙮, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙮 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙤 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙩.
𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝟐 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬, 𝐒𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐚, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.
ᴹᵃʳᵃᵘᵈᵉʳ ³ ˢᵃʸˢ, ᴵ ᵃᵍʳᵉᵉ ʷⁱᵗʰ ᵗʰᵉ ᵍᵘʸˢ, ᵗʳʸ ᵃᵍᵃⁱⁿ

I looked up at the boys with a raised eyebrow, it was fairly obvious who was who, but James raised up his hands in defence and said, "When we get a nickname we'll change it, Marauder 1, 2, and 3 was the best we could come up with." It wasn't the question I was going to ask but it was the answer that I would get. 

I looked at the words again and shook my head, "So what is the password then?" Peter took the parchment from my hands, the words had already slowly disappeared, and he pulled out his own wand, tapping the parchment and saying, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." I laughed, that was a very impressive slogan, which made it obvious who made it. 

But then, images and words sprawled out across the bottom of the page, names and dots and lines sprinting across like a race. I leaned in and read the first word I saw, Grant Chapman, it showed the dot in what looked like the Hufflepuff common room, and I looked up at the boys, my jaw hanging open. 

Remus smiled, "Well, I've only done the bottom few places like the grounds and the dungeons and such, that's why the dots are disappearing after going up the stairs." He was acting very modest about the whole thing.

Then, Sirius said something else that surprised me, "Since we're on the topic, I have a crystal phial with the Mandrake Leaf that we all nearly swallowed for a month in it, I just need one of your hairs Thea, I have one from the rest of us." I blinked at him, very curious at where he would get a crystal phial from and where he even got the leaf from in the first place.

Then, I reminded myself that he was Sirius Black, and it was better not to ask the questions, and it was probably safer to never know. "Do you want to be added to the map Athena?" Remus asked me. I smiled at him but shook my head, "Nah, it's yours, I didn't work on it, nor did I even know about it." 

James rolled his eyes and leaned back on the chair that he was sat on, "Yeah but you're practically one of us."

"But I'm not, and anyway, I could help, but I would rather be surprised and impressed when I see the final results," I told him. Peter closed the map and the writing suddenly disappeared. and I swear that I heard him say 'mischief managed', but I wasn't too sure. I then did two things, I pulled out one of my hairs and passed it to Sirius who placed into a labelled phial, and then asked, "What are you naming that map?"

Remus was the one that answered me, "Something simple and easy, The Marauders Map, and no one knows about it but us four and now you." I thanked him, and it was true, they could have all agreed never to tell me and for that I was grateful, they did let me in on a lot of things. 

Sirius then jumped up from his seat on the rug and said, "Who wants to prank Malfoy with me?" I was very confused, how would he know what to do on such short notice? "I was thinking a small shoe tying spell, and maybe a spell that whenever he wants to say something rude, like maybe a jibe about someone's blood, instead he can shout 'hug me'!" he said. 

I grinned, it sounded perfect, make Hogwarts a nicer place and make Malfoy trip, it sounded like the perfect end to a day. With that, James grabbed his cloak, threw it over us, and we all walked down near the Slytherin common room and waited until we spotted Malfoy & Co walking towards us, I saw him with Avery, Crabbe and Goyle (who were four years above us), Mulciber and Rosier. 

I whispered to the boys that I wanted to take on Rosier, and they all agreed. James took Crabbe and Goyle, Remus did Avery, Sirius did Malfoy, and Peter decided to cast his spell at Mulciber. Once we had completed the spell, we waited, and like it was planned, all six of the boys fell over in sync, and then scrambled to get up but their laces denied them the task. 

Then, once their laces were finally undone, Mulciber said, "It must have been the fluffy bunnies, but where could they be hiding?" I guessed he was trying to say Marauders, and as it dawned on him what he had said, he hurried to say it again. "Fluffy Bunnies, fluffy bunnies. Shit. I'm not saying that, I'm trying to say fluffy bunnies." 

Needless to say we were all breathless with laughter for the rest of the week.